SPA14: Witching and Bitching (plus closing night drinks and tapas)

Let's go and see "Witching and Bitching" at the Kino. This film is part of the Spanish Film Festival 2014. It is the winner of the following Goya Awards in 2014: Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Special Effects, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyles. This black comedy from Spain is the winner of the most Goya awards and has excellent reviews, so comes highly recommended. It is the closing night film for the Spanish Film Festival. This closing night screening is accompanied by tapas and a glass of sangria for all attendees.

This is a film festival screening for which advance bookings are available and recommended, so please make an effort to decide on your RSVP and buy your tickets (preferably at the same time) as soon as possible as the session may sell out. If I become aware that this session has sold out, I will close RSVP's for this event.

Please purchase your ticket(s) when you RSVP. This is important as this session may sell out ahead of the date. (More likely to happen since this is a closing night event screening.)

I realise that I have opened this a long way ahead of the date (because of the need to book tickets in advance), so I will send out a reminder a few days before just in case anyone forgets.

Time: Meet at 5:30pm for the 5:45pm closing night festivities and the subsequent 6:30pm session. We will enter the cinema at approximately 6:10pm (or whenever it opens) to get good seats.

Place: Meet at the seats opposite the box office. As it will be busy at this time of night, especially given the film festival, I will be carrying a red "meetup" sign to help you identify me. Please try to be on time.

Notes: There is no allocated seating for this session.
As this is the closing night film, tickets are about an extra $10 more than the usual price, but tapas and sangria are included in the price. Palace Movie Club members receive a small discount (usually around $5) from the ticket price. When you book online, you receive a voucher, and you have to pick up the tickets by presenting the voucher or the credit card you used to book the tickets. If you present the voucher, you receive the ticket to this film only; if you present your credit card, you receive ALL pre-booked tickets at the same cinema.

Synopsis:
Director Alex de la Iglesia (As Luck Would Have It, SFF opening night 2012) returns with a wild dose of dark humour to guarantee an unforgettable festival closing night! This high-octane, crowdpleasing ride recently won eight GOYA awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Terele Pavez, Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects.

Wildly fleeing toward France through the impenetrable Basque forest after a jewel heist, a hapless band of robbers runs afoul of an evil coven of witches led by Marichu (the mighty Terele Pavez), her daughter Graciana (Carmen Maura, Volver), and granddaughter Eva (Carolina Bang). The robbery is masterminded by Jose (Hugo Silva, The Body, SFF13), a down-on-his-luck divorced dad who, due to his custody schedule, is forced to bring his eight-year-old son to the robbery. When the plan goes awry, Jose, along with his half-wit sidekick Tony (played by heartthrob Mario Casas, I want you, SFF13) hijack a taxi-driver. A violent and frenetic car chase ensues into the depths of witchterritory and from here things take a sharp turn towards the macabre.

A reckless "battle of the sexes", de la Iglesia enhances his vision with top-shelf production, resulting in a fast-paced, zany spectacle of a film, which will shock audiences into laughter and leave them breathless.

Post-film discussion: If enough people are interested we will go to Beer Deluxe (updated 14th May) in Federation Square after the film. We will leave the Kino approximately 15 minutes after the session finish time to allow the group to meet.

A fun, irreverent and clever romp, if rather silly at times - especially in the last half hour or so (with the video-game inspired "witch monster"). Drinks and snacks were fairly basic but not bad given the cost and a good chance for a chat before the film as well as after. Thanks to all who attended tonight and hope to see you all again soon :)

Hi Simon, there will be quite a few of us coming with me so I think we will have to give this a miss in terms of joining my group with yours even though we will be at the same venue but I dont want to complicate things for you. Hope you all enjoy the film! :)

Hi All, just letting you know that I wont be coming after all as I have an opportunity to see it ahead of this screening. Also, just a heads up, this will be recommended in the Age top ten on Saturday morning, so it's very likely to sell out so please grab your ticket ahead of time!! Have a great screening all! Hopefully I'll get to meet some of you at the next screening that I can get to!

I'm changing the post-film discussion venue to Beer Deluxe, as this is a large group that may get larger, and in recent times we've had very high takeup on post-film discussion - so the group will probably be too big for Time Out.

Tickets are still available, but there's no way to say for sure how long that will remain the case. If you haven't bought your ticket, now is the time.
Regards,

Hi Shelley-Maree, sure, go for it :) I've updated your RSVP. Can you please let me know the names of the people who will be coming? In future you and they will find it easier if they join Melbourne Film Club. I don't set RSVP settings to allow +4 by default and other organisers may not allow it.

We're about:

Melbourne Film Club is all about bringing together a diverse group of people with a passion for great cinema. See a film, then go to dinner with your fellow movie buffs in a relaxed, friendly environment.

We'll be seeing a mix of arthouse / indie as well as good mainstream films so there should be something for everyone, and I intend to schedule a film every two weeks.

You don't need to be a film expert to join this group, just enjoy seeing films and talking about them with like minded people.

Our venue of choice is the Palace Westgarth just north of the city at 89 High Street, Northcote. Parking is on street or catch the #86 tram (runs right past the cinema) or the Epping line train to Merri station.

You can also expect to see films at the amazing Astor in Windsor and the ACMI Cinemas at Fed Square.